Established in 1996 by Lily Nie and Joshua Zhong, the Joyous Chinese Cultural Center (JCCC) exists to provide Chinese language and cultural education and emotional support to adopted Chinese children and their families.

Through its on-campus and long-distance learning programs, JCCC strives to:

• Create a positive and culturally relevant learning environment where Chinese language and cultural education is fun and effective.

• Nurture a strong sense of pride in the Chinese heritage and an interest and ability to appreciate Chinese culture, language, art and history.

• Offer a curriculum that helps build a solid foundation for future pursuit of higher-level Chinese language study.

• Provide emotional support to adopted children through group learning activities where children find friendship and belonging with other children whose families look like their own.

• Present tools and resources to assist adoptive parents’ efforts to keep their children culturally connected.

• Prepare children to fully embrace the tremendous opportunities that these two great nations, China and the United States, will present in the 21 st century and beyond.

• Reach outside the adoption community to generate support for adopted Chinese children and their families and to build understanding of the Chinese culture.